eben alexander is a harvard neurosurgeon who nearly died four years ago when a ferocious e. coli meningitis infection attacked his brain and plunged him deep into a coma for a week. brain scans that show the parts that give us consciousness, thought and memory were not functioning. >> they should be a very rich network of them all through both sides. yet we don't really see them because they're all filled with pus. >> reporter: doctors gave him up for dead. but after a week, eben alexander awoke with, he says, a wondrous memory. did you go to heaven? >> yes. i was rescued by this beautiful spinning white light that had a melody, indescribably beautiful melody with it that opened up into a bright valley. >> reporter: god was there he says as a vast presence of love and eben says there was a young woman who soared across heaven with him on a butterfly wing and gave him a message to take back. >> the concepts came straight into my mind. you are loved, you are cherished, there is nothing you have to fear, there is nothing you can do wrong. >> reporter: and that woman, after he r